Wolves forward Kevin Love (42) worked against Kenneth Faried (35) in the first half. The Minnesota Timberwolves took a bite out of the Denver Nuggets winning 101-97 at the Pepsi Center on Jan. 3, 2013.

Although Brian Shaw could get a job with the Knicks in a New York minute, he’s staying in Denver to coach for the long haul, Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly assured me Thursday.

Now, all Connelly has to do is acquire the talent that can return Denver to the playoffs. He has got to think big and take risks.

No player on the Nuggets should be considered untouchable. And no deal, whether it’s a trade for the top pick in this year’s draft or disgruntled Minnesota star Kevin Love, should be considered too implausible to pursue.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have let it be known the No. 1 pick in the draft — with Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker as the prize — is open for trade bidding from NBA rivals.

Cleveland front office executive “David Griffin is a very good general manager, who’s not afraid to take risks and not shy to make a trade,” Connelly said. “But, in the end, it’s hard to trade the No. 1 pick in the draft. It doesn’t happen very often.”

While Wiggins or Parker might finally fill the void left when LeBron James dumped Cleveland and took his talents to South Beach, the 7-foot Embiid is the unpolished gem of this draft. Yes, there are concerns about the health of his back. But his skill set, which reminds many scouts of a raw, young Hakeem Olajuwon, presents the only real chance in the 2014 draft to transform a franchise into a perennial contender for a decade or more.

If the draft is all about taking a risk to maximize reward, then a team would be crazy to take anyone except Embiid at No. 1.

The Nuggets had a 1.5 percent chance in the lottery to get lucky and land the top pick. If Connelly can’t put together a trade package that has more than a 1.5 percent shot of persuading the Cavs to trade away the top choice, then he’s wasting his time as a GM.

Connelly firmly believes the Nuggets have players coveted throughout the league, both for their skills and contracts that are fair. So let’s see if the trade marketplace proves that Connelly’s confidence is justified.

Would forward Kenneth Faried, natural-born scorer Danilo Gallinari and the Nuggets’ pick at No. 11 in the opening round be sufficient to tempt Cleveland to make a deal?

Ah, there’s the rub. Gallinari has not played a game since injuring his knee in April 2013. The inability for him to get on the court for a single game last season was far more critical and costly to the franchise than the departure of George Karl as coach or Masai Ujiri as a front-office executive.

I think it would behoove the Nuggets to also jump in the sweepstakes for Love, who has informed Minnesota of his intention to test the free-agent market in the summer of 2015.

Yes, there are no assurances the Timberwolves will trade Love. And, yes, there could be even less assurance Love would stay in Denver for more than a season. But using Gallinari and Faried as the basis for a Love trade might actually get the attention of the Timberwolves.

Big risk? Sure. But what’s the worst that could happen if Love bolted after one season? The Nuggets could fail to win a playoff series for another five years? And that would be worse than the team’s current situation? How, exactly?

Word out of New York is Knicks executive Phil Jackson can’t get Shaw out of his head when looking for a new coach. To which Connelly has three words: “Complete. Non. Story.”

A year after pushing Karl out the door and letting Ujiri walk, it appears the Nuggets are in absolutely no mood to allow Shaw to get away to the Knicks.

But here’s the scary part: What if Shaw is really the most marketable basketball commodity in Denver?

Coaches don’t win championships in the NBA. Players do.

Now, it’s Connelly’s job to acquire players for the Nuggets who prevent Shaw from wishing he had waited a year for vacancies in New York and Los Angeles to open before becoming a head coach for the first time.

Pressure’s on.

If the Nuggets fail to add anything more to their 2014-15 roster than the No. 11 pick in the draft, it will be a rude disappointment.